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Vaughn, Teague top All-Cenla XC team

Seventh-grader Claire Vaughn of Holy Savior Menard (left) and sophomore Nic Teague of Leesville are the outstanding female and male runners on the Town Talk’s All Cenla Cross Country Team.(Photo: Bob Tompkins/btompkins@thetowntalk.com)

Two newcomers helped their Central Louisiana high school cross country teams to a state title and a state runner-up finish last month.

Seventh-grader Claire Vaughn of Class 2A state champion Holy Savior Menard, with a fifth-place finish in the Class 2A state competition at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, had the top girls time of any area runner in any classification. Sophomore transfer Nic Teague of Class 4A runner-up Leesville posted the best time in the area in any class with a third-place bronze medal finish in the Class 4A boys competition.

Those accomplishments earned them the honors as the outstanding female and male runners on the Town Talk's All-Cenla Cross Country Team.

Vaughn value

Wally Smith recalls while he was coaching Menard during the track and field season last spring hearing the herald of good news.

"Somebody said, 'Hey, did you hear the Vaughns are coming (to Menard)?' I said, 'No, I hadn't heard that, but it's good to hear."

The Vaughns are triplets — sisters Claire and Katharine and brother William — who enrolled this academic year at Menard in the seventh grade. They appear at the end of the TV commercial for Vaughn Automotive. The two sisters are good runners and have been since their time with Rapides Runners, the Junior Olympics and age-group open competitions.

"The last I had heard was they were going to Pineville," said Smith, who admits he was nonetheless tickled to hear they were bound for Menard and his cross country team.

Claire Vaughn, as a 5-foot, 80-pound, 12-year-old rookie, led the Lady Eagles to a repeat state championship. She placed fifth, finishing the 3-mile race in cold, windy and muddy conditions at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches in 19 minutes, 48.36 seconds.

"We knew we were going to Menard in the ninth grade, but we jumped ship a little early," said Beth Vaughn, Claire's mother, explaining Claire wanted to join Menard freshman Grace Ahrens, her friend and the daughter of local running guru Dan Ahrens, whom she trained with during the offseason.

Claire is particularly proud of having twice broken the 19-minute barrier during the season, at 18:54 both times in the St. Joseph's meet at Highland Park in Baton Rouge and in the District 3-2A championship race at Fort Buhlow Recreation Area.

"When I started out, people didn't expect much from me since I am younger," said Claire, who easily won race after race in elementary school competition in previous years, "but I really wanted to tell everybody that I could make the top seven (on the) varsity."

Claire showed she could not only make the top seven but in some races lead the pack as she did at the state meet under adverse conditions on the first day of the two-day meet.

Menard's Claire Vaughn qualified for the LHSAA state meet in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters while helping lead the Lady Eagles to the Region 1-2A title Thursday.(Photo: Gary Hardamon/NSU Photo Lab)

"It was mostly muddy and freezing cold and the wind was really, really strong," she said, noting the best strategy was to get behind someone, especially when running into the teeth of the wind. One of the opposing runners who ran in front of her, she said, kicked up her cleat as she cut in front of her and spiked her on her right knee near the two-mile mark. "And blood was streaming down," she said.

This then became her version of Curt Schilling's bloody sock pitching heroics in World Series lore, rising to a peak performance despite the pain.

"That was pretty painful, but it was not too bad," she said. "I had other things to worry about. My legs (in the cold and the mud and at the end of a long season) were so tired." She said she needed to dig deep within her spirit to give her best effort. A big motivation was unselfish.

"I really wanted to help my team win," she said.

Menard did win, by just three points over Episcopal of Baton Rouge (46 to 49), and had three of the top 10 runners, with Ahrens finishing seventh and lone senior Mallory Robichaux finishing eighth.

Next year, she said she wants to break 18:20 and help Menard win its third straight state title.

Nic of time

Sophomore Nicholas Teague of Leesville was a transfer student to Leesville this year from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and he "brought a good winning mentality to our program," said first-year Leesville cross country coach Joseph Saverino Jr.

Teague also brought some talented distance running skills, posting a time of 16:49.60 to earn a bronze medal for a third place finish at the Class 4A boys state competition. He helped Leesville finish as the state runner-up.

"His dad's in the military, and he moved here over the summer with his family" to be near Fort Polk, said Saverino, a 2005 Leesville graduate and former runner for the Wampus Cats. "He kept training hard and was a good leader for the team as a sophomore.

"The kid can just run," added Saverino. "He's a great athlete and he refuses to lose."

Teague, 15, said one of the hardest things about this season was his adjustment to new people and a new team and a new coach who had never coached cross country before "and working together to accomplish something."

The son of a lieutenant colonel battalion commander at Fort Polk, Teague said Leesville's mission was "more of building a program rather than continuing one" like Menard's girls team, which won its third state title in four years.

"Before the season started, I wanted to break 16:40," said Teague, who ran a 16:35 in his first race of the season at Toledo Bend for a runner-up finish to Blake Cantrell of Rosepine, a foe he said he beat in every other race but one the rest of the season.

Teague twisted his right knee when he stepped in a hole at the DeRidder Invitational a few weeks before the state meet, but he said "training and ice" helped him continue to run.

Although his competition at state was on the second day and not as cold as it had been on the first day for the smaller schools, the course was still muddy.

"In some places, the mud was above your ankles," he said, explaining he had one of his worst starts of the season at the event.

"I knew all the emotions were high, and a lot of people started really fast," he said. "In the first half-mile, I was way back and my coach was yelling, 'What are you doing back there?'

"I went from 42nd to 16th by the mile mark and by a mile-and-a-half, I was in third, where I ran most of the race," he said.

"I kept telling myself, 'I'm third, and going in I would've been happy to be in the top 10," said Teague, noting he didn't even qualify for state at the regional tournament he competed in at North Carolina last year."

He's setting lofty goals for next year.

"Next year, I hope to get my time in the low 16s, maybe even break 16," he said. "We had only one senior who was our seventh runner this year" he added of the Wampus Cats, who finished second by six points to Assumption (97-91) with teammate Andrew Barefield also finishing in the top 10 at ninth.